Evening debate on federalism(s) in New Caledonia

Hello everyone,

The APROFED association is getting back to you this week following the announcement made by the Les Républicains Calédoniens (LRC) party of the organization of an evening debate in their premises this Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. on  federalism(s) in New Caledonia .

The speaker this evening was Mr Pierre Bretegnier , signatory of the Matignon agreements, former lieutenant of Mr Jacques Lafleur, who in 2006 took up the vision set out by Dick Ukeiwé in 1985 ¹  pleading for the establishment of federalism in New Caledonia ² .

With Jean Yves Faberon, honorary professor of public law and the late Pierre Maresca ³ , another Caledonian politician like him,  Pierre Bretegnier has been proposing for 20 years a “double federalism” which would be, according to him, an honourable and advantageous way for all to prepare for the exit from the Noumea Accord.

This “double federalism” is made up of:

–  of an “external federalism”  offering greater autonomy to New Caledonia in its relationship with France, to which the association adheres,

– and  an “internal federalism”  allowing the provinces to acquire greater resources than at present.

According to this vision,  New Caledonia would become a “State” . The federal solution would allow the independence supporters to say that they had succeeded in making New Caledonia a State and the non-independence supporters that this State would remain within France. According to him, many Caledonians would be proud to have their State ⁴ , a country “united in diversity”.

Pierre Bretegnier also points out that  in a “federated state”, we associate before independence  and not after, as the independence supporters demand with an “associated state”.

Through this federal solution, Mr. Bretegnier defends the existence of a New Caledonia anchored in France  while understanding the Kanak people’s aspiration to participate fully in the archipelago’s political life.  Federalism consists of continuing to seek a conciliatory solution between those who want independence and those who do not.

It remains to be seen whether this solution put in place by Michel Rocard will be applied again today by the French State,  even if, as Mr Bretegnier points out, the overseas territories have always constituted an exception in French law and the constitution.

It also remains to be seen whether this solution resonates with local political actors, including the organizers of this evening, who are themselves debating it.  If Ms. Backès, who chairs the LRC, defended in 2014-2015 in a Senate report ⁵  the establishment of a territorial community in the Republic of the federated type with a double federalism as proposed by Mr. Bretegnier, she refused in 2017 any solution of the associated or federated State type ⁶  to today defend only an internal federalism ⁷  where independentists and non-independentists would each implement their social projects on their own where they are in the majority. This argument, added to others, has thus led many analysts and Caledonians themselves to see this project as racism, a possible desire for partition, an act of apartheid, separatism, segregation ⁸ .

This is why  it is important for the association not to dissociate internal federalism and external federalism to avoid the notion of federalism being seen as a notion of exclusion  as some analysts on the independence side describe it ⁹ .

1 Pierre Bretegnier — Wikipedia

9 lvdk-n-21-sept-oct-2020.pdf

We wish you a good read and remind you that federalism is the only solution to reconcile unity in diversity.

The APROFED association